DVD Release Date: August 16, 2005 (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
Color
MSRP: $49.98
Number of Discs: 4
Number of Episodes: 25
Running Time: 575 minutes
Total Run Time of Special Features: 71 minutes (plus
commentaries)
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: English,
Spanish, and French languages; Parisian French,
Castilian Spanish, Czech, and Russian languages on
"Who Shot Mr. Burns, Part One;" English and Spanish
subtitles; closed-captioned
Special Features: Commentary tracks on every episode;
A Confession from Matt Groening; Animatic for
"Treehouse of Horror V" with optional illustrated
commentary; Animatic and Storyboard for "Lisa's
Wedding;" "Springfield's Most Wanted" special;
Simpsons plane featurette; Commercials for Church's
Chicken and 1-800-COLLECT, deleted scenes with
optional commentary; special language feature for "Who
Shot Mr. Burns, Part One;" introduction for "Who Shot
Mr. Burns, Part One" by James L. Brooks

Introduction:

"Woohoo!" is about the simplest thing I can say. It is
time for yet another season of America's favorite
yellow family on DVD! 20th Century Fox Home
Entertainment is ready to unveil The Complete Sixth
Season of The Simpsons, and what a great set they are
releasing this time! Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie,
and the rest of the Springfield clan shine like they
never have before in this 4-disc set that contains all
25 unedited episodes, loaded with special features
from commentaries, animatics, commercials, and more!
As Matt Groening says on this set (and the five that
preceded it as well…), this is the greatest season of
The Simpsons that has made it to DVD so far! With the
characters already having been well established by
about season four, we get to see many of the best
moments of many of the characters from the show, and
it all leads up to the one big moment, the famous "Who
Shot Mr. Burns" cliffhanger! Well, maybe it doesn't
lead up to that, but we all know that comes at the end
of the sixth season, don't we?

Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:

Come on now, this is The Simpsons! Just about every
episode that ISN'T a clip show (well there is one of
those in this season unfortunately) is great! The
season begins with the episode "Bart of Darkness,"
where Bart is spending the summer in his bedroom when
all of a sudden he discovers that Ned Flanders kills
his wife! Does Bart just have an overactive
imagination or did Ned really kill Maude? Winona Ryder
plays the title character in "Lisa's Rival." The
family goes on a vacation that is full of fun,
excitement, and murderous robots in "Itchy & Scratchy
Land." Dr. Demento and Larry King have voice credits
in "Sideshow Bob Roberts," an episode in which
Sideshow Bob may become mayor of Springfield on
promises to build a Matlock Expressway! No season is
complete without a Halloween episode, and this season
has "Treehouse of Horror V,” with James Earl Jones as
the voice of… Maggie??? Meryl Streep plays Reverend
Lovejoy's daughter, Jessica, who may be too bad even
for Bart, in "Bart's Girlfriend."
Homer gets a reputation as a sexual harasser when he
grabs a gummy bear off of the babysitter's backside in
"Homer Badman." Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson, Rhea
Pearlman, Jon Ratzenberger, and George Wendt all
(briefly) get together for a Cheers mini-reunion in
"Fear of Flying." Homer joins a super-secret society
that I won't even mention because, ehh, it's a secret,
in "Homer the Great." Everybody in Springfield is
worried that the world is about to end in "Bart's
Comet." Talk show host Dick Cavett and football Hall
of Famer Johnny Unitas make a guest appearance when
Homer goes to clown college in "Homie the Clown." Mel
Brooks and Susan Sarandon have brief appearances when
Patty and Selma give Homer a loan after he loses money
by investing in pumpkins in "Homer vs. Patty & Selma."
Jon Lovitz makes a special appearance in "A Star is
Burns," a crossover episode where he played his role
of Jay Sherman from another Gracie Films show, The
Critic. Lisa has to deal with the pain of death when
Bleeding Gums Murphy dies in "'Round Springfield."
Marge takes a job as a cop in "Springfield
Connection." And FINALLY, after all of those episodes,
we get to the final episode of the sixth season, the
legendary "Who Shot Mr. Burns, Part One" episode! The
episode begins with oil being discovered at
Springfield Elementary School and Mr. Burns wanting a
monopoly on the energy in Springfield, and all goes
well for Mr. Burns until all of a sudden, somebody
shoots him! Who did it? Well if you don't already
know, you won't find out until "Who Shot Mr. Burns,
Part Two" is released in The Complete Seventh Season!

Packaging:

The Complete Sixth Season of The Simpsons is inside
of… Homer's head! After the ordinary and plain boxes
that were used for the first five seasons, Fox has
decided to come up with a complete new packaging
design that uses the heads of all five main characters
from the show. The first thing that you will notice
with the set is a transparent plastic cover, and if
you are anything like me, this thing will frustrate
you more than ANYTHING else with this set. The point
of the plastic cover is so that you can place the DVD
set on a shelf and be able to read the spine on the
set so that you will know what it is. It is great that
they included that, but it is very flimsy, is
sometimes difficult to put back on the case, and
begins to look horrible every time you touch it
because it REALLY attracts fingerprints! In the few
days that I've had this set, I have (as pathetic as
this sounds) used Windex to wipe off my fingerprints
because it makes the set look a little less than new.
Once you remove the annoying plastic cover, however,
things get much better. We finally get to the case in
the set… Homer's head. One person on a certain website
likened this head to an Altoids can, which is an
accurate assessment I suppose. Some have complained
that it is difficult to open, but really all that you
have to do is put one hand on the front of the set and
the other hand on the back of the set and pull at the
top and it should open fairly easily. Inside, you'll
find Homer's brain, with a crayon lodged in it, but
more importantly, you will find a digibook that holds
all four discs for the set. This is probably the
nicest way that the Simpsons discs have been organized
so far. The digibook has a "crime theme" (presumably
because this is the season of the first part of the
"Who Shot Mr. Burns" cliffhanger), with the cover
having Homer's mouth covered with tape that says "The
Complete Sixth Season." On the back, we have Maggie
inside of a playpen that is turned upside down, almost
like a jail cell. On the inside, of course, we have
the four "pages” that hold the CDs, and on the back of
the front cover, there is a folder that holds the
episode booklet. Unfortunately, I did not receive an
episode booklet for some reason, so I can only assume
that the booklet is as nice as the booklets that were
used on the first five seasons, with thorough episode
descriptions, guest stars, and special features
information. If I'm wrong on this, don't blame me;
blame Fox for sending me an incomplete set.

Is this new packaging a good thing or a bad thing? It
really depends upon how you feel about it. On one
hand, the new packaging looks very nice and is very
creative. On the other hand, the old style packaging
was also nice and very uniform, and it would be nice
to have all 17+ seasons lined up on the shelf, all
looking the same. There is a rumor floating around
throughout the Internet that the retail packages (not
the review copy as I have received) contain an 800
number that you can call to order a traditional style
box, as was used in the first five seasons. I have no
details such as how much that what this traditional
box looks like, how much it will cost (if anything),
or even if this rumor is true (though I can only
assume that it is), but it sounds like Fox is trying
to accommodate fans that prefer creativity as well as
fans that prefer the traditional style box.
Personally, as much as I like the head, I think I
would rather have the traditional box in my DVD
collection.

Of course, he discs that are contained inside are much
less controversial than the case that is provided. The
disc art has the whole crime theme again, and has
characters that appear to be in the process of being
interrogated. Disc 1 has a picture of Mr. Smithers
with a confession in front of him, Disc 2 has Barney
making shadow puppets, Disc 3 has Moe performing some
magic (or so it appears), and
Disc 4 has Homer sweating while it appears that he is
taking a polygraph test. Disc 1 contains episodes 1-7,
Disc 2 contains 8-14, Disc 3 contains 15-21, and Disc
4 contains 22-25. This breakdown of episodes probably
appears a little less even than previous sets that
have been release, but bear in mind, Disc 4 contains
many of the special features, more than the equivalent
of 2 episodes worth of special features as a matter of
fact, making the breakdown more like 7/7/7/6.

Menu Design and Navigation:

I have had complaints about the menus on many of the
previous sets, simply because they are too involved
and thus very slow to load. However, this time, the
menus are done absolutely PERFECT! Just as the
packaging has the whole "crime" theme, the menus have
the same theme. The menus are of the same style that
was used in The Complete Fifth Season. However, the
crime theme makes them look so much better! On the
main menu of all of the discs, the top half of the
screen has a police lineup, with (usually) the main
character from each episode standing in that lineup.
The details are so well done that the characters in
the lineup aren't just standing there, but are
actually doing things, such as on Disc 1, where Homer
uses an axe to chop of part of Sideshow Bob's hair.
The characters also do smaller and insignificant
things such as blinking and moving their head around.
Very nice! On the bottom of the main menu screen (the
top and bottom of the screen is cleverly separated by
police tape that says "Season One, Disc X" by the way,
where X is the disc number), there is a listing of all
of the episodes. There are two small buttons next to
each episode. The first button will play the episode
and the second button will take you to an episode
options menu (more on that shortly). At the bottom of
the list, there is an option to play all episodes,
with or without commentary. In addition, Discs 1, 3,
and 4 have an Extras button that will take you to the
Extras menu, and the main menu Disc 1 has an envelope
that will take you to the "A Confession from Matt
Groening" special feature.

The Episode Options menus that are available in this
set are just as nicely done as the main menu. When you
select the Episode Options for an episode, you get a
menu that is designed like the main menu, except this
time you get a mug shot of the character from that
episode that appeared in the lineup. An even more
interesting detail in the mug shot is the prisoner
number that they get—the number is the episode
production number! Leave it to these sets to get all
of the fine details in! The Episode Options menus
allow you to play the episode, turn the commentary on,
turn on the deleted scenes (where applicable), select
the language, go to the scene selection menu, or
return to the main menu. And the details don't even
end there! While the language selection menu is a
little dull (you essentially just, well, select your
language and/or subtitles), the scene selection menus
are VERY creatively done, with Mr. Burns sitting in
his chair watching his security cameras when Mr. Burns
is mysteriously shot! On the cameras, you can see
about 20 seconds from the beginning of each scene on
the "security monitors." You can also select scenes by
using the chapters that are placed throughout the
episode. There are chapters placed at all of the
commercial break points, as well as just after the
opening credits and just before the closing credits.
In addition, there is another chapter placed
approximately four minutes into each episode, I am not
sure why that is there as there has never been (to my
knowledge) a commercial break there either originally
or in syndication. Regardless, it is placed very
appropriately at a scene change. The Extras menus are
nicely done too, just like the other menus, with Chief
Wiggum's desk on top of the screen with a ringing
telephone that nobody is answering.

Video and Audio Quality:

This show is always very well done on DVD, and this
set is no exception at all. The episodes are uncut,
running at 22:30. And if uncut isn't enough for you,
the special features give you more than you were ever
intended to see even with the deleted scenes.

Video and audio quality is essentially a non-issue on
this set. The picture quality is not as sharp as
episodes that you may view that are broadcast
throughout the nation, but there isn't a single flaw
to be noted in the department of audio quality. Well,
technically, some absolute purists could probably come
up with one bad thing to say about the audio quality,
but for the 99% of the rest of us, there is NOTHING to
be concerned about at ALL. The audio is presented in
Dolby Digital 5.1, and while it doesn't make use of
all of the capabilities that it is given, it sounds
EXACTLY like it is intended to sound, and that is all
one should ask for in a TV on DVD release. The
episodes all have Spanish and French audio tracks, and
these sound excellent, and are just as flawless as the
English audio track. And even further, the set has
English and Spanish subtitles, as well as
closed-captioning, which are great features to have in
a DVD set.

Special Features:

The Simpsons NEVER ceases to amaze me with the special
features! So many barebones sets are released these
days, but The Simpsons sets are always loaded with
special features that will keep you entertained for
HOURS after watching each episode. First of all, Disc
1 begins with "A Confession from Matt Groening,"
(1:10) something that has become kind of a regular
thing on these sets. Matt Groening basically just
talks about the set and the season—and how it is the
best season out of all of the ones that have been
released so far (he says it on every season, and it is
really true every time that he says it).

As great of a person as I'm sure Matt Groening is, he
is NOT the spotlight of the special features on the
set. What IS the spotlight of the special features are
the commentary tracks that are on every episode! This
is a Simpsons tradition that began when The Complete
First Season was released, and shows no sign of being
abandoned anytime soon. This is a great thing to have
on just some episodes, but for every episode to have a
commentary track is just amazing! The participants in
each of the commentaries are as follows:

Now I would just settle for commentaries on every
episode in this set, that is a great special feature
just by itself. But the DVD producers didn't stop
there by any means! There are also deleted scenes
throughout the set. Now these aren't "deleted scenes"
such as scenes that originally aired on Fox but were
removed from syndication, but rather scenes that have
never before been aired! The episodes containing these
deleted scenes are "Bart of Darkness," "Itchy &
Scratchy Land," "Sideshow Bob Roberts," "Treehouse of
Horror V," "Homer Badman," "Grandpa vs. Sexual
Inadequacy," "Fear of Flying," "Homer the Great," "And
Maggie Makes Three," "Bart's Comet," "Homie the
Clown," "Bart vs. Australia," "Homer vs. Patty &
Selma," "A Star is Burns," "Lisa's Wedding," "Two
Dozen and One Greyhounds," "The PTA Disbands," "'Round
Springfield," "The Springfield Connection," and "Who
Shot Mr. Burns, Part One." That is 20 episodes out of
a grand total of 25 episodes that has deleted scenes!
Can you ask for more than that? You can view these
deleted scenes through the individual episode options
menu by turning deleted scenes "on" in that episode
(which really doesn't "reinsert" them in the show so
to speak, but instead prompts you to hit Enter on your
remote when a golden pair of scissors comes up to
indicate a deleted scene while you are watching the
episode) or by viewing the deleted scenes reel (27:59)
on Disc 4.
This reel even gives you an option to listen to
commentary by David Mirkin as he explains WHY each
scene was deleted from the show!

Do you like to see how the show was made? Well, once
again, this set brings back the animatics! There
aren't as many animatics this time (only two episodes
have them), but they are very interesting to see. In
case you don't know what an animatic is, here it is in
the simplest possible terms—it is a way to view how
the show looks in the process of being made. The first
animatic is on Disc 1 and is part of the "Treehouse of
Horror V" episode. In this animatic (9:25), you can
even get optional ILLUSTRATED commentary from Jim
Reardon, David Silverman, Matt Groening! The other
animatic isn't QUITE as impressive, but nonetheless is
still great. It is on Disc 3 on "Lisa's Wedding"
episode. With this one (7:14), you can use the Angle
button on your DVD remote (bet that is one you don't
use too often) to toggle between the animatic and the
animated storyboard, which is nice to see, but maybe a
LITTLE bit (dare I say it?) boring.

This season contained the well-known episode "Who Shot
Mr. Burns, Part One," and this set recognizes the
importance of this episode to the series! There is a
whole slew of bonus features related to just this one
episode. The first is a special introduction by James
L. Brooks (0:56). It really isn't that great, and the
stuff that it addresses is also in the commentary
track, but it is nice to have it regardless. Next, we
have a Special Language feature on this episode.
Besides the typical English, Spanish, and French, you
can watch this episode in four additional languages!
These include Parisian French, Castilian Spanish,
Czech, and Russian. That is quite impressive! But the
fun doesn't end there! Perhaps the greatest gem
related to this episode is the Springfield's Most
Wanted special (21:12) that Fox aired just before the
premiere of the seventh season of the show! This is a
special that was hosted by John Walsh (of America's
Most Wanted) that tries to track down exactly who it
was the shot Mr. Burns. In many parts of the country,
this special was even preempted by football coverage,
so that means some people may be seeing this for the
VERY first time! I found this to be an interesting
special, and it has Dennis Franz and others in it as
well. All of these features can be found on Disc 4.

Finally, a type of special feature that I tend to
enjoy—promotional material! Just like other sets,
there are commercials featuring characters from The
Simpsons on this set, but no Butterfinger commercials
this time! Instead we have two commercials for
Church's Chicken, one called Picnic (0:21) and other
called "Piggy Bank (0:21), as well as a commercial for
1-800-COLLECT (0:31). I find it interesting that this
set has Church's Chicken commercials featuring the
family while another recent set had a KFC commercial.
The commercials all (surprisingly) looked and sounded
great, unlike a Ramada Inn commercial that was of poor
quality that was included on a previous set.
Additional, there is a Simpsons Plane special feature
(1:58). This is promotional video for Western Pacific
Airlines for an airplane that they designed with a
Simpsons theme. It is kind of interesting, and it even
has commentary on it by Matt Groening and David
Mirkin. These can also be found on Disc 4.

That is about it for the special features—but could
you POSSIBLY need more? I really don't think so, but
there are probably even MORE special features
available in the set! In the "A Word from Matt
Groening" introduction to the set on Disc 1, Matt
Groening says that there are some Easter Eggs on the
set. Now I have no clue what they are or how to get to
them (they make some of the Easter Eggs so hard to
find on these sets, I still haven't been able to
access many on the previous sets), but I am sure Matt
Groening is probably correct in saying that there are
some Easter Eggs in the set. One thing is certain
though: there are no hidden commentary tracks in this
set. In many of the previous sets, there were some
episodes that had more than one commentary track, one
which could be accessed from the episode menu and the
other which required the use of the audio button on
the remote. I have checked all 25 episodes, and sorry,
there are no bonus commentaries. But then again, if
you don't think that it is enough to have 25 episodes
that each have exactly one commentary track, then
maybe the whole TV on DVD concept is wrong for you.

Final Comments:

Once again, another great set of The Simpsons has been
released! There really aren't too many bad that I can
say about this set, which considering how many DVD
sets have been turning out lately, is a strong
compliment for this set. I can't say that I'm overly
thrilled with the packaging, but the fact that the
powers that be at 20th Century Fox realize that not
everybody will be thrilled with it and are willing to
provide the old style packaging solves that problem.
EVERY fan of The Simpsons MUST own this set, there is
no excuse not to own it. Even if you are only a
semi-regular viewer of The Simpsons, you'll want this
set. Not too many television shows get released with
the same dignity that The Simpsons deserves and
receives. I honestly can't ask for anything different
in future releases, why mess with a good thing? I
suppose that maybe they could find some more creative
special features to add, but they have already done
that for all of the releases so far, and they are much
more creative in their selection than I would be.
Bottom line (if you haven't already got the point
yet)—this set is a must own set for all DVD
collectors.